3

"Kerono!"

Izumi jerked to her feet. "Sensei!"

"You were sick yesterday. How're you feeling?" Ruto Sensei was eyeballing her, his scarred face twisted into its usual frown.

"Alright, I guess?"

"Good. Get in there." And that was all the warning he had before he shoved her into the ring.

The combat rings in their training hall were about five meters at their widest, marked with a circle of paint on the floor, now scuffed from years of sandaled feet.

Izumi found herself facing Haji, another one of the civilian orphans. She nodded to him, and he returned it, his face impassive.

It was a bad match up. She was a little taller than most of the other girls in class, but he was a full head above her, and well-muscled. She vaguely remembered hearing him mention that he sometimes did manual labor on the side for a quick buck. It meant he had weight and reach on her, a lot of it.

And there was no girl/boy split in combat class. Fighting a bigger, stronger boy was just good training for real life. Izumi scowled. Kicks to the groin were still forbidden though. Lousy, squeamish male teachers.

"Begin!" Ruto barked.

Haji moved in slowly, falling into an open-armed grappling stance. He was going to use his superior weight to try and take her down. And Izumi wasn't a good grappler. All the writhing and grabbing was just weird and uncomfortable.

He lunged, coming in low to try and knock her off her feet. Izumi dodged to the side, flicking a kick into the back of his knee. Haji grunted, but turned and grabbed for her, nearly seizing her sleeve.

She yelped and fell back a few more steps. Haji rushed again, but she was ready this time. She dropped to a crouch and then leapt straight up in the air, hopping over him like a frog. His momentum carried her under him, and she used her airtime to send both feet into the back of Haji's head.

He stumbled and then tripped, nearly falling out of the ring.

"Gotcha!" Izumi crowed.

"Get in there, Kerono!" Ruto yelled from the sidelines.

She closed in. She'd missed her opportunity, and Haji was already rising. She aimed a kick at his head, but he caught it on his arm and knocked it away.

They came together and the fight began in earnest. Haji was no longer attempting solely to grapple. Now, he had added grabs and heavy punches to his arsenal. She had to avoid both, after a counterpunch turned into a grab that nearly sent her to the mat.

She flurried kicks at him, aiming for the same spots on his legs and thighs each time, forcing him to divert his punches to block her. Every time he dropped his guard, she'd use the opening to punch at his face.

She was hitting him more, but every one of his blows was enough to rattle her bones, and the single punch that glanced her head sent lights dancing behind her eyes. His strength was too high, compared to hers. This was a contest that would be decided with weapons or jutsu in the real world, but she was allowed neither here.

His endurance was better too. He was breathing lightly, but she was beginning to sweat. The effort of sending hit after hit at him was wearing at her.

He swung, and she ducked and rolled away, creating space between them to think.

This was a taijutsu match, and he had the advantages there for sure. There were things that didn't matter with how strong you were- joints and weak points like eyes and throat. But she didn't want to hit those for fear of actually hurting him. This was just training, not a death match.

"Ameno, get in there in and hit her, for God's sake! She's not made of glass!" Ruto was still circling the ring like an angry bull, glaring at the both of them.

Something clicked at his words. Izumi smiled thinly.

Buoyed by Ruto's words, Haji closed in. He jabbed at her face. She blocked. Another jab. Another block. He threw a heavier punch.

She let it through.

An explosion of pain sent the world spinning sideways.

Something hard and flat hit her side, and it took her a moment to realize it was the floor. Izumi groaned. Her nose was full of hot, sick pain, and she could taste the copper of a bloody nose.

"Oh! Oh man, Izumi, are you okay?" Haji said, his voice suddenly high with panic.

His heavy footsteps came towards her.

She rolled over slowly, trying to get her legs under her.

"Izumi?"

"Owww," she moaned. "By dose."

Hands brushed her shoulder.

She cracked a watery eye open.

Haji was within arm's reach, bending awkwardly to look down at her. "Izu-"

Izumi unfolded. She lunged up at him and grabbed Haji around the neck. He had time to gasp before she used his imbalanced stance to pull him over. Haji crashed to the mat and she found herself on top of him.

She pinned his arms with her knees, using her body weight to hold him down, before jabbing her fingers toward his throat. It would be a killing blow in real life, though she was going to stop here and not make contact.

And then Haji sat up. He pressed his hands flat against the floor and curled like he was doing a sit-up. Izumi squeaked as he shook her off like a bug and sent her tumbling to the floor in front of him.

She tried to scramble up, but he was faster. A leg swept hers from underneath her- she'd missed it coming through the waves of pain still radiating through her head, and she hit hard enough that her vision rolled and keeled for an instant.

Big hands caught hers- both in one of his, and his knee drove into her midsection. Izumi wheezed as he knocked the breath out of her. Haji held her flat, his weight and her windedness enough to keep her down.

"Match over," Ruto called. "Winner, Ameno."

"Sorry," Haji said. He pulled away, then helped her up. Izumi let him. Her balance had taken a leave of absence, and it was hard to focus with her sinuses full of blood. "Didn't mean to whack you like that."

"Who can tell me what Kerono did wrong?" Ruto was facing the rest of the class now, hands on hips. "How about what she did right? Or the same for Ameno?"

"He used his strength to his advantage," someone said.

"He out-weighs her," said someone else. "But she doesn't weigh enough to pin him."

"All true," Ruto said, nodding. "What else? Kerono, any thoughts?"

She sniffed, clutching a workout towel to her gushing nose. "When I play possum because I got hurt… don't actually get hurt."

"Almost. Kerono's idea was sound. She played off Ameno's expectations. Girls, this is a technique you can and will use. Men will underestimate women. They will pull their punches- speaking of which, Ameno, pull your punches against a girl again and I'll have you fighting kunoichi until your balls drop off!"

Haji blanched. "Yes, sensei."

"Turn an injury into an opportunity," Ruto continued. "It was a good strategy. She forced him to approach on her terms, and had we been using weapons, he would have lost. Kerono's other mistake was that if you intend to fake an injury, don't let your physically stronger opponent deck you right in the face!" He pointed toward the door. "Kerono, nurse's office. The rest of you, pair off for sparring drills."

XXX

As it turned out, Haji had broken her nose.

The school med-nin unbroke it, his palms humming with green healing chakra, and then slapped a stiff bandage over it to hold it in place. He gave her a list of all the things she would need to do to recover from her healing, ended it with "And don't get hit in the face for at least a week," and then sent her off.

Izumi stumbled out of the office, still sniffling through sinuses just beginning to unclot. Somehow, healing hadn't done much for the actual pain, and her whole face ached, hot bolts radiating out from her nose to run through her jaw.

This week was officially terrible.

Her next class was the last of the day, but it was just history, and it wasn't like that was going anywhere.

"'m going home," she muttered thickly. She was just beginning to trudge toward the exit when there were footsteps behind her.

"Kerono!"

Izumi turned, just in time to catch Haji flinching at the sight of her bandage.

"Yeah?"

He rubbed the back of his head, his eyes on the floor. "Just- just wanted to make sure you were okay."

"My face hurts."

"Sorry."

"Shouldn't have gotten hit like that." She rubbed her face gingerly. It wasn't swelling, but it was probably going to bruise. "It was dumb."

"Yeah." Haji blinked. "Not that I mean that you're dumb, I just mean that- that- you know?"

She looked at him. Talking made her face hurt.

She shrugged again.

Haji seemed to read her right though, because his shoulders relaxed.

"Do you mind if I walk with you for a bit?"

"Why?" He still had class.

"You're going home, right? You're hurt, and I dunno… it didn't seem right?"

Izumi shrugged again. "If you want."

She hefted her bag over one shoulder and started toward the doors again. Haji was quick to move to her side, only to slow down to match her much shorter stride.

It was only after they passed out into the misty afternoon humidity that she turned her attention on him once more.

"So… What do you want?"

Haji stuttered to a stop, and she could see the excuse forming on his lips. Izumi glared, and she held up his hands.

"Alright! I wanted to ask you something."

His eyes dropped again, and- was he blushing?

"I didn't want to like… ask you in front of everyone else. It's embarrassing."

Oh no. Was he confessing to her? This was how it went in the books. A couple alone in some quiet location, and the boy would blurt out his feelings and- no no no noooo!

A shrill, panicked noise like a tea kettle escaped her.

"Can you help me ask someone out!?" Haji yelled, his face now glowing.

"I'm engaged!" Izumi shrieked. "Arranged to a rich noble- wait, what?"

They both stared. Her murky green eyes squinting into his blue.

"Are you really?" he asked.

Only in certain nighttime fantasies about arranged marriages to lusty foreign princesses.

"...no." The rest of what he said trickled through. "You… wanted me to help you confess to someone?"

He nodded dumbly.

"Why?"

"You sit next to Hajime-san. And uh- you're a girl, so I figured you'd have a lot of knowledge about romance and stuff? All my friends are guys, and they're kinda… dumb about sappy stuff like that."

The face to match the name came to her. Hajime Mikoto was the girl who sat to her immediate left. She was a clan kid from a fairly well-to-do family, and she and Izumi had never spoken beyond 'I dropped my eraser, can I use yours?' levels of conversation.

Hajime was not only a fairly decent kunoichi, well-off, but also very, very pretty. Like, distractingly so. There was a definite reason Izumi had always chosen the boy to her right whenever they had to pair up in class. Hajime was all soft, golden hair and amber eyes, and way way out of her league.

And Haji's.

Izumi repeated this thought to him. To his credit, Haji nodded.

"I know. It's just… I need to at least try. She's rich, and I'm just a dumbass orphan loser. I'm so low that I don't even have a real last name. But I can't think of anything else but blurting it out. And girls are supposed to know romance stuff, and you're the only girl I know."

That wasn't quite it, and they both knew it. He was talking to her because Izumi was one of the only civilian kunoichi in class. Socially, they were on the same strata.

"What's in it for me?" As much as her heart fluttered at the idea of true love and all that, her nose was still clogged with dried blood, and the bandage was making all her words nasally. She wanted nothing better than to go home and forget today, forget getting hit, or writing letters, or stealing from shrines.

"I- I hadn't gotten that far," Haji said.

She tapped a finger against her lips while she thought. "You know any jutsu outside what they teach?"

"Nope."

"Any unusual combat styles? Chakra tricks? Secret ninja magic?"

"Nope. No, and- wait." He blinked. "Ninja magic? I thought I could maybe just… do your homework for a week or something?"

"I think I'm a higher class rank than you." Izumi frowned. They'd been talking long enough that she honestly did kind of want to help him now. He was just so earnest. "How about… I help you, and you'll owe me one?"

"Deal!"

"And you owe me one regardless of if she says no or not."

Haji hesitated for only an instant before shouting "Deal!" again.

They shook hands, and the bargain was struck.

The tall boy grinned from ear to ear at her. "Thank you, Kerono-san. I really appreciate it. I- oh man, this is gonna be big. Can we do it today?"

"My face hurts, Ameno. Tomorrow. We can meet… we can eat lunch together?"

"That'd be great."

XXX

Their conversation came to a close, and Haji zoomed off with a speed that belied his size, practically floating on a cloud of gooey romantic thoughts.

Izumi waved and set off on the long walk home.

Somehow, the pain in her nose had eased a bit, and her steps felt a little bit lighter. And wasn't that lame? One conversation with someone was all it took for her to get emotionally invested, even though she couldn't have picked Haji out of a line-up before today.

It was still funny that he'd thought she'd know anything about romance. Her experiences in that department were limited to her erotica collection, and the few pulp romance novels she used to pad her bookshelf. Confessing to someone was… how did that even work? Like, she knew how it worked in books, and on tv, but that wasn't real.

Izumi stopped in the middle of a sky-bridge.

"Shit."

She had absolutely no idea how to ask someone out.

"Shiiitttt."

If Haji was going to use what she told him to ask out Mikoto, then… when Mikoto said no, it would be like both of them got shot down. This was going to be a disaster. She was going to get turned down by the first person she ever technically asked out, and wouldn't that just be a wonderful omen for future relationships.

"Oh God, I'm going to die alone."

A few passing citizens looked oddly at her as she moaned with self-loathing and slumped against the bridge railing.

She ought to just give up now and go find the Cat summoning contract.

Images of herself, dying alone and surrounded by cats, a desolate, decrepit, 60-year old spinster virgin followed her the rest of the way across town.

She paused at the shrine, glancing over to see if there was another origami token, but there wasn't.

With that note of despair, she dragged herself home and fell face first into her futon.

XXX

Morning brought with it a fresh view on things. And a gloriously purple bruise across the center of her face.

But it didn't matter- Izumi had an idea.

If Haji succeeded, it would mean that Izumi had the chops to ask out a girl. If she had the skills, it would give her the guts to actually do it. Not Mikoto, mind, there was reaching, and then there was social-insanity, but she would be able ask a girl out.

Haji had to succeed.

She rose from her futon, a phoenix in froggy-print pajamas. "I need to learn about romance."

And when you needed to learn something, you went to the experts.

XXX

"Onee-san, please, teach me about love!"

The prostitute sitting behind the counter of 'Love You Long Time' stared at her.

Izumi stayed where she was, bent double in a bow. "Please!"

"Kid, you're not old enough for that. And-" The woman squinted, taking in Izumi's faded gray kimono top and patched pants. "You probably don't have the dough for it either."

Izumi shot up, a blush lighting her cheeks like a sunset. "Not like that!" she squealed. "I meant like love-love. Not sex stuff. I need to help my classmate ask someone out."

"Oh." The whore blinked silver-rouged eyelids at her. "Why didn't you just say so? Dating is easy. Take it from me, kiddo. Easiest way to land a man is to put out. Or, make him think he's going to get some."

"Ew. And no, my classmate is a guy, asking out a girl."

There was a pause, and then the woman leaned a little closer, squinting at her again. "You're not this guy's pimp, are you?"

"He's my classmate."

"That's not a no," the woman said, smirking at her. "But that's easy too. Women like men with a lot of money. Your little boy-toy got a lotta cash?"

"No."

"Then you know where to start." A pause, as she inspected her lime-green nails. "You gonna buy something, or just keep standing there?"

Izumi left.

It was way too early in the day for the redlight to have any real traffic- she'd ditched her first class of the day to come here, and she moved easily through the rest of the aisles to the exit.

What the woman had said rankled her. It wasn't so- so cynical as all that. Sure, having money was nice. Izumi would love to have enough money that she didn't have to squeeze her entire budget into the minuscule stipend she got as a junior kunoichi and an orphan.

But there was more to it. It wasn't all just money and wealth. Love was more genuine than that.

Real love- true love, was emotional and deep and… she wasn't really sure. She'd never been in love before. Lust, sure, but never love.

She sighed. If she'd wanted a real answer, she should have asked someone else. What whores dealt in wasn't real. It was just… physical. Lust, but not love.

But that just made it worse. Because there was no one she could actually talk to about love. This was the kind of thing girls were supposed to ask their mothers.

Izumi sighed again. Being an orphan was something she was used to. Never know anything else, and it becomes the norm. But she was feeling the lack of parents fairly keenly at the moment.

XXX

On a whim, she doubled back and went to speak to the old man who ran the erotic bookstore.

His advice was about as useful as the prostitute's.

"My wife ran off with a rich eel-salesman from Iwa. Never fall in love. Just makes it easier for them to break your heart."

Okay, the redlight as a whole was probably a bad source for romance advice.

Izumi ended up leaving to scuttle down the stairs to the lower market. She revisited the food stall she'd eaten at when she was ill.

The old man running that was… oddly familiar.

"Don't fall in love, lass. My brother's wife ran off with an eel-salesman, and mine left me to join a commune of lesbians. Nothing but trouble, the lot of them. You- never grow up to lead a man on. Just find yourself a nice man with a stable business and learn to be happy with that."

XXX

Her footsteps were heavy, and her thighs burning by the time she abandoned her quest to make her way toward school. Ame had too many freaking stairs. No easy, convenient elevators, no sir. That would be too easy.

She grabbed her stuff from her apartment and locked up. It was nearly time for her second class, chakra training, and she wanted to be there. Ninjutsu was something she was pretty sure she was actually talented at. Not like stupid taijutsu…

Izumi checked her watch. And she needed to hurry if she wanted to get there. She threw herself into a run, burning chakra to wipe away fatigue from all the stairs. The rain blurred around her as she shot across the first bridge and-

A flash of white in the corner of her eye.

She skidded to a halt, sandals kicking up arcs of water as she stopped.

An origami lotus was tucked in the corner of the prayer box.

XXX

She made it to second period with seconds to spare, hurling herself into the closest open seat and nearly careening into the person sitting next to her.

The bell rang.

Sensei Mikami entered, the bells in her hair jingling softly.

"Today, we will be discussing the mechanics of chakra conversion and..."

The words drifted away into a vague buzz.

Izumi stared feverishly at the flower cradled in her lap.

Another message.

She plucked at a petal, intending to unravel this one piece by piece like she had the other, but it came apart all at once. One bit of impetus was enough to tug the entire fragile thing open.

It unfolded.

A single sheet of marked paper at the center of the blossom.

"It was a pleasant and unexpected surprise to find my letter missing, and yours in its place. An unusual way to treat a shrine, but I find myself glad you did. You are kind to feel the way you do, and to offer to sacrifice your happiness for mine, but this is my burden to bear. Suffering is not a fair trade. There is no give and take. If it were that easy to take away the pain of others, I would have eased my beloved's long ago.

These notes at the shrine were my way of consoling myself, of easing some of the tension by writing anonymously. I never expected to receive a response, but yours has done more than any ten of mine.

Please feel free to write back. It helps me to have someone to speak to, and I think you may feel much the same. It does not matter what topics you choose. Any diversion is pleasant."

Izumi had to reread it three times before the message truly sank in.

The origami woman wasn't angry at her for stealing. She was actually happy. And she wanted Izumi to keep writing, to keep snatching letters and posting her own.

She glanced down, looking for a name at the bottom. The space was marked, but not with a name. A curling, elegant drawing of a rose.

"Wow," she whispered.

Whoever this lady was, she was cool.

She looked up for a second. Mikage was sketching a diagram of the chakra cycle on the board. Nothing she hadn't seen before.

Izumi turned her attention back to the letter. After a moment, she pulled a piece of paper from her notebook and began writing.

If she'd thought her return letter, written in the pouring rain during a religious crisis, was tense, this one was like trying to crack a safe while wearing earmuffs. Every word needed to be perfect, every letter written with flawless calligraphy. It needed to be smart and adult- no not adult. Mature.

This was a grown woman she was writing to. Being a snot-nosed brat had gotten her into this situation, but she was going to use her head to get out.

She was halfway through her ninth attempt when new lines appeared on the page. She'd hardly realized what she was writing until it was fully formed, her pen resting on the final mark.

I have a friend who wants to ask a girl out. I'm not good with romance, but this is really important.

Can you tell me about love?